August 1, 2007 - The Rush County Sheriff's Department responded to two unrelated suicides last Friday.

Within a period of less than two hours, 64-year-old Harold Jones of 108 W. Henley St., Carthage, and 48-year-old Susan Archibald of 9041 N. CR 200-W, Rushville, were each found dead at their respective homes by their spouses. According to RCSD incident reports, both died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

Rush County 911 received a call regarding the Jones death at about 4:20 Friday afternoon, and emergency personnel, the RCSD and Carthage Police were dispatched to the scene. At about 6 p.m., while investigators were still at the Jones residence, word came of the second suicide, a few miles east of Carthage.

"We really couldn't believe it when the second call came in," Rush County Sheriff Jeff Sherwood told The Banner Tuesday morning.

Based on information Jones' and Archibald's spouses provided investigators, Sherwood said health issues are believed to have played a role in both deaths.
"They both had some medical issues and have had a lot of pain and problems over the years," Sherwood said. "I guess that day was the day they'd had enough."